Ebook: E-Governance

It has been my honor and privilege to edit and be a part of this book. This has really been an intellectually stimulating experience and a wonderful opportunity to meet and share ideas with many distinguished speakers who actively took part and made presentations at the International Conference on Global e-Governance at Waseda University. It has been a revelation to uncover the wealth of innovations that are expected to meet the needs of various nations and overcome challenges faced.

My most sincere appreciation goes to the speakers from various governments, business entities and academia. In the spirit of cross-border knowledge sharing, they have unselfishly shared their wisdom and experience and contributed to the overall knowledge on e-Governance.

“e-Governance” is regarded as one of the most important subjects in the Information Society. Global e-governance for both public and private sectors is becoming extremely significant in an innovative and seamless world community.

Waseda University Institute of e-Government, founded in 2001, is a pioneer for capacity-building on CIO training and human resource development as well as international ranking on e-government activities. It has also played an important role of regional ICT cooperation in APEC region as APEC e-Government Research Center.

This book is divided into five (5) parts:

• The 1st chapter is entitled “Information/Ubiquitous Society” and offers understanding of what information society or ubiquitous society is all about. There have been many perspectives and many frameworks since these terms evolved and we at the Institute have reviewed these and explored what it meant to be on the global e-Governance.

• The 2nd chapter is entitled “e-Government”. In this chapter, individual papers presented dealt with different countries/areas in the world focusing on all of their visions, strategies and priority areas as well as on the key challenges and lessons of e-Government. The selection covered (Japan, China, Thailand, USA, Brazil, Indonesia, Russia and Taiwan) give a fair reflection of different e-Government scenarios.

• The 3rd chapter is entitled “e-Municipality” and focuses on several key areas – some services, infrastructures and practices. The presenters share their views on what is happening and the real situations at key areas of e-municipality solutions, services and current challenges.

• The 4th chapter is entitled “ICT and Applications”. In this chapter, we introduced and highlighted several applications in the field of ICT including broadband and disaster issues.

• The 5th and final chapter is entitled “The Role of CIO” where CIO (Chief Information Officer) is at present the most attractive post within organizations at the stage of Information Society. We are very fortunate to have invited such honorable speakers in this field.

The book contains the views of various speakers with a profound experience in global e-Governance and I have found that key objectives are common to all. Finally, the quality of this book was ensured by the exemplary editorial efforts of the brilliant researchers at Waseda University Institute of e-Government.

ITU is the oldest international organization in the world. Going back 141 years to when, Napoleon Bonaparte and Queen Victoria signed a peace treaty in Germany At about the same time, people began to use the telegraph, which spread widely all around the world. To internationalize the telegraph, a standard was established, and in order to do so, international agreements were required. In Germany, at that time there were 15 states. In order to deploy the communications system across borders they had to enter into 15 different agreements. In 1963, the issue of a multi-lateral agreement for telegraph was discussed in Paris. They reached agreement on the issues of how to share the telegraph fees. In order to implement that agreement a secretariat was set up that was the beginning of ITU. For that multilateral agreement a system of one vote for one country was introduced. Another issue which was discussed was the official language and the conference mechanism. So this international organization began.

The Japanese IT Strategy (that started in January 2001) has been recently modified and it is at a new stage. In the last five years it has gone through three steps. The first one was in 2001: IT staggered behind in Japan compared to the world. There was a need to have proper infrastructure. From 2001 to 2002, the government successfully worked on the infrastructure. In 2003, the second step was the e-Strategy called e-Japan. The aim was to make good use of IT. Six major fields were selected in order to apply the IT strategy. In order to accelerate e-Japan a promotion package was established in 2005. After five years, new targets have been set: 1. how can IT be used for structural reforms? 2. How to be a frontrunner, to initiate the global IT revolution?

There are three aspects to the ubiquitous network society:

• ICT Policy Development in Japan and the Ubiquitous Network

• International Sharing of the Ubiquitous

• The u-Japan Policy and the Solution Driven Approach to Establish the Ubiquitous Network Society

Results of a survey conducted by Prof. Sato of Keio University asking more than 30,000 Japanese: if they knew the meaning of the word “ubiquitous” showed that 24% knew about it.

The word ubiquitous has become very familiar among the Japanese. They know what the word ubiquitous or ubiquity means: being everywhere or in many places at the same time.

This word became famous even before the global proliferation of the Internet when Dr. Mark Weizer of Xerox used ubiquitous computing in 1998. Nomura Research Institute (NRI) started to use this word around 1999.

During the mid-internet era, NRI started to discuss issues on ubiquity but they thought that the ubiquity of Internet access was much more important than the ubiquity of computing capability so NRI decided to use the word for the ubiquitous network instead of ubiquitous computing.

In 1998, Dr. Weizer introduced ubiquitous computing and that was introduced to Japan in 1991 by translation but nothing happened since then for about a decade. It was only about the turn of the century when Japanese businesses started to take an interest in the ubiquitous paradigm particularly in the year 2000 when NRI started publishing about the ubiquitous network.

This presentation is about the ubiquitous society in Korea, the existing standards for ICT, current national policies and the available services.

What is e-government all about? It is about government for the Information Society, it is about utilizing new tools that an information society development brings forth and it aims to increase the efficiency of service provision and this is what Finland is aiming at.

The Digital Local Agenda is a Local e-Strategy for the Development of the Information Society in a city or region, which would be defined as “a common strategy for the development of the Information Society, a project shared with citizens that responds to their needs and hopes, which bears in mind the socio-economic, cultural and institutional specifics of each city or region and contributes to the reinforcement of policies and actions aimed at achieving sustainable development (economic growth, culture and identity, social cohesion, environment) and which will benefit greater development for the cities or regions' citizens, especially for the most disadvantaged groups.”

“15. Recognizing the principles of universal and non-discriminatory access to ICTs for all nations, the need to take into account the level of social and economic development of each country, and respecting the development-oriented aspects of the Information Society, we underscore that ICTs are effective tools to promote peace, security and stability, to enhance E-democracy, social cohesion, good governance and the rule of law, at national, regional and international levels.”

TUNIS COMMITMENT. World Summit on the Information Society.

The usage of the “e –” prefix (which is an abbreviation for “electronic”) has become a common practice nowadays. Wherever it appears it gives the idea of a particular field related with the usage of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT).

Following the intensive usage of ICT in the private sector in order to improve the efficiency of businesses and to generate savings, countries worldwide are also taking into account these benefits in order to implement their Information Society programs. E-Government is one of the issues increasingly included. At the same time, terms such as “E-Governance” and “E-Democracy” have appeared, in order to define how the State uses ICT for carrying out its duties.

The purpose of this chapter is to compare and analyze the main existing definitions given to the concepts of “E-Government” and “E-Governance”, in order to have a better understanding of both concepts, given the fact that they are usually used as synonyms.

In the first part of this paper the main definitions of these two concepts given by international organizations such as United Nations, International Telecommunications Union, the World Bank, are going to be presented, along with the definitions given by Chile, the European Union, Japan and the United States. The second part of the paper analyzes their similarities and differences, while intending to relate these two concepts.

The first part of this presentation will start with the framework for e-Development, in which e-government is a component. It can also be called Information Society. e-Government cannot work by itself unless there are appropriate human resources, adequate connectivity and information infrastructure, as well as local capability to adapt software and information technology to local conditions, the IT industry capability promoted as a sector.

On January 19, 2006 the IT Strategic Headquarters established the New IT Reform Strategy; compiling the priority plans for it. Policies will be implemented based on this priority action plan.

IT can go beyond time and distance and can overcome geographical and time restrictions. It can be a great lever to reform socioeconomic structures. This structure reform power is intended to be used in order to promote the administrative reforms in Japan; as well as an active society, with the participation of the elders and children.

The IT basic frame was set in 2001 so that by the year 2005 Japan would become the world's most advanced IT country. In the e-Japan Strategy the focus was put on the infrastructure development of broadband and, through 5 years' effort for the broadband infrastructure, Japan now has the fastest and cheapest broadband access, leading the world in that sense. Among other measures, the New IT Reform Strategy projects the leverage and use of IT capabilities by July 2007.

At the start of the 21^st century Thailand has developed the first ICT policy framework 2001-2010 which has been approved by the government in early 2003. This national ICT policy framework identifies goals and strategies and linkages between strategies of development of the country. In addition, it also recommends guidelines for policy implementation as the key to success .

ICT policy and cooperation in Asia is a key element in the effort to improve the efficacy of government operation through the use of information and technology. The impact of IT on government operation is clearly understood, as stated by the World Summit on Information Society (WSIS).

The WSIS Plan of Action calls for governments to implement e-government strategies focusing on applications, promoting transparency in public administration and democratic processes, improving efficiency and strengthening relations with the citizens.

The action plan reflects a broad realization that e-government is part of reforming the relationship between the government and the citizens, and at the same time, transforming internal government operation itself. We hope the outcome of this conference will reflect the spirit of the WSIS as well as the APEC Declaration that enable the global community to affect transition from the digital divide existing among countries to digital opportunities for all.

This presentation is about the guiding principles of the draft ICT Roadmap for the years 2007-2010, which is now being finalized. The draft Roadmap is now being shared with the stakeholders in the Philippines, so that the result is a document that will embody all of the aspirations of all of the stakeholders. And with the consultations held in the past two months, it has been possible to determine the following reasons or rationale for why the review of the strategical map should be done.

1. Review / establish policy directions, as the lead agency for ICT development in the country;

2. Present the Philippine government's ICT-related strategies and programs to the citizenry;

3. Create wider awareness of ICT and its benefits to society;

4. Catalyze more ICT-related investment opportunities;

5. Lay out sustainable strategies for ICT-enabled economic development;

6. Recast, refine (or redefine) our short and medium term objectives;

7. Identify the key initiatives that will rally all stakeholders towards achieving our common objectives;

8. Provide the private sector with a reliable frame of reference to strengthen their strategies / action plans;

9. Increase coordination among stakeholders in implementing ICT programs and achieving desired outcomes.

The second part of the presentation is focused on the seven guiding principles which the government has developed to guide the building of the Roadmap.

The Brazilian initiative in e-government has recently attracted growing international interest. Brazil figures among the leaders in providing e-government services even though in some indicators such as public access to the internet, there is a need for improvement. Taking this fact into consideration, the emphasis of this presentation will be put on the Brazilian government's goal of transforming e-government as a tool to strengthen social cohesion.

The information industry experience has been very fast during the last 10 years in China. Not only the infrastructure but also researches, manufacturers and societal information, human relations are not only reaching the normal level but also a more advanced level should have been reached in recent years.

The national guideline for media and the long term plan for science and technology development for the next 15 years have been released just recently by the Higher State of the Council. This work plan makes a blue print for China's future and during the last 15 years a lot has been done on other concerns such as education and information deployment.

Finland was an early starter in e-government and was talking about it as early as the 1990s. e-Government came to Finland in the context of general public administration reforms which we have executed. Finland wants to have responsibility, accountability and flexibility at the administrative agency level to decrease oversight. e-Government has become a useful tool in making progress in these areas. Some of the objectives have been too much that the government wished to use e-government in order to strengthen competitiveness, enhance modernization of the administration and increase its efficiency.

An explosion of ICT utilization in public life and government, in particular, appears to be one of the most clear global trends within the last decade. Nowadays, the electronic government (e-government) concept is the factor dominating the character of reforming the governments all over the world, although “numerous significant foundational issues about electronic government (e-government) remain nearly or completely unexplored” [Jaeger, pp. 702-703]. The latter is especially important for implementation of the e-government concept, it determines the variety of governmental policies regarding relevant technological, organizational, economic and regulatory issues, ensuring consistency with country's legislation and the rights of users. There are many other challenges to be dealt with while implementing e-government as far as particular stage of development is reached (see [Borins, pp.200-201], [Clark, pp. 380-382], [Jaeger and Thompson, pp.390-392]).

According to a global e-government survey applied by Brown University in the United States, Taiwan has been ranked first three times in last five years. Taiwan maintained the top 5 rank of e-government development. Also according to WEF, Taiwan has a good rank in government readiness and is 4^th in government usage in the Global Information Technology Report recently published. Taiwan maintained the top 10 rank in the development of e-government.

Currently, in order to submit documents it is necessary to mail them or to go to administrative offices. The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC) is aiming at a situation where people can carry out administrative services through the Internet, 24 hours a day.

The development course of Chinese e-government can be divided into 3 periods: the first one is before 1993, where the focus was put into office automation, to build a crosswise internal work network. The second period is from 1993 to 2000. In this period some huge projects (Golden Bridge, Golden Customs and Golden Card in March 1993, and the Government Online Project, in January 1999) were carried out. Finally, the third stage began after October 2000. In this period, the government and government officials recognized the importance and function of e-government.

From countries that have a per capita income of about $40,000 per year to Estonia that has a per capita income of $70,000 per year, the question is: “Should we have a budget for information, for ICT?” In the Philippines the per capita income is $1,100. This is, therefore one of the problems for the digital divide.

This paper contains the results of the e-municipality Project which was made possible through the collaboration between the Global E-Policy, e-Government Institute, of Sungkyunkwan University and the E-Governance Institute at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, cosponsored by the United Nations and the American Society for Public Administration.

The project consisted of the development of an e-governance Performance Index, and assessment of one hundred cities' websites in the same number of countries. This research replicates a survey completed in 2003 – Digital Governance in Municipalities Worldwide. Therefore, it was possible to have a comparison between the results obtained in 2003 and 2005, by longitudinal perspectives.